Care4autism

  Prachi Deo is the executive director of Nayi Disha. Nayidisha, an information resource, for intellectual and developmental disabilities, has helped parents on not one but many critical areas. These include counselling, resources directory, and need based support. From humble beginnings, spanning 17 years, Nayidisha and its team, have scaled new heights. In conversation with Prachi Deo. 1)  A little about yourself. How did you envision NayiDisha so many years ago and how did it grow?        My elder brother has down syndrome, and I have seen my parents’ struggle. I grew up watching them. I started volunteering at a centre. And then realised volunteering has its limitations, and I wanted to reach out to more people. With my background in technology, I started a resource centre, and we have grown organically over the last 7 years. Soon I had volunteers helping me out. With funding, I now have a capable team who look into the different se...

 Shaloo Sharma is an experienced Consultant, Educator and a Life Skills Trainer with over 25 years of experience, most of which has been dedicated to designing and delivering programs for adults with diverse Needs, which includes persons with Neuro diversity, Autism, Intellectual Disabilities, Learning differences and/or behaviour disorders. She is the Founder of Evoluer Solutions, a consultancy that works towards promoting inclusion in mainstream work spaces.              A live wire bustling with ideas and energy, Shaloo Sharma makes an impassioned plea for constant innovation. Here are her thoughts… The Big Picture #voicesforinclusion-7 1) What is the difference between employability training and vocational training? Vocation training is training for a particular skill. It could be for employment in an open space, or a sheltered workshop/ semi sheltered workshop. Employability skills are all-encompassing, overarching skills which can be u...

  The Big Picture #Voicesforinclusion6 Indrani Basu, is one of the leaders of the Autism movement in India .She has relentlessly worked to raise Autism awareness. Her indefatigable spirit and strength resonates in her voice. There are a few major takeaways from this interview, including her call for parents' activism and failure to mobilise for a common goal. She adds, “A handful of NGOs cannot make all the changes”. Indrani Basu completed her graduation in education and trained as a teacher from the department of Education London University. She has had many years of teaching experience at mainstream schools in India. After the diagnosis of her sons, she trained as a special educator. She is the founder and director of Autism society West Bengal (ASWB) in Kolkata. The organization runs several programs that provides support and empower persons with Autism & their families. Autism Society West Bengal runs programs from early intervention, Parent Training, Vocation...

 Hi everyone,                                  After a long hiatus, glad to be posting on the blog once again. Welcome back! So much has happened in the interim. My fb page,  https://www.facebook.com/mymanycoloureddays/  has tons of information that you may find useful. Information I have missed posting here.   Thank you!

As a part of the non fire series , I started with yogurt parfait , as that is something he enjoys.  To begin wash and chop the fruits that would go into the parfait.  Take 500g of thick curd, place it in a  cheese cloth and make a knot , the whey collects in a vessel at the bottom. Drain for an hour.   Next whisk the hung curd , sugar( 1 tbsp)and fresh  cream (200ml)in a mixing bowl.Stir in the mixed fruit jam ( 2 tbsp) and vanilla extract(1/2 tsp)and nutmeg/ cardamom powder(1/4 tsp).  Take about 100g of digestive biscuits, place them in a ziplock bag and polverize it to a bread crumb consistency , not to a powdery form... Add sugar( 1 tbsp) and 2 tbsp melted butter to this. Assembling the ingredients Place the 2 tbsp  yougurt in the glass, sprinkle the biscuit crumbs over the yogurt,put in the chopped fruits, again spoon some yogurt and repeat the process.

At the outset categorisation sounds easy and simple , given a set of flash cards and the child is asked to sort the pictures into categories , transport, fruits , vegetables, clothing.That would be the basic sorting. However Categorization is a difficult skill for children on the spectrum, and for children with speech disorders and cognitive abilities.Dwell a little deeper into categorisation, categorise transport into air, road  and water, categorize household items. A little deeper , state the functions and ask the child to categorise given the functions of the object, categorise objects in a room, it gets a little trickier.  Identify an object by the senses. For example it taste sweet/ sour. It grows on vines and is green or black in colour. It is a fruit. Name the fruit. Or try giving the objects in a category and ask them to name the category. Taking it a step ahead , discriminate among a given set of objects , pencil, pen,chalk ,door . What is not used for writing? Fur...

I find the perler beads activity an engaging one.It was introduced to me by my daughter. Whether it is making cartoon characters or coasters , this one helps in focussing, copying patterns, fine motor skills  and in moving towards independent work skills . Works as a family fun activity as well .To see the designs emerge after placing it on the iron board, gives you  a sense of creative satisfaction. Parental supervision will be required. More pictures on my fb page.